EIR Daily Alert Service, Thursday, January 30, 2020
THURSDAY, JANUARY 30, 2020
Volume 7, Number 21
EIR Daily Alert Service
P.O. Box 17390, Washington, DC 20041-0390
- Surfacing of Bolton Is a Sign of Coup Plotters’ Desperation
- Xi Affirms ‘China Has Full Confidence and Capability To Win the Battle’ Against Coronavirus’
- Roscosmos Sets Russian Nuclear Space Tug for Launch in 2030
- Working People Pour Out for Trump at South Jersey Rally
- Democrats Desperate To Go to John
- Pompeop Thanks Yang Jiechi for Evacuation of Americans From Virus Epicenter
- Justice Department Kicks Off Huge Campaign Against Alleged Chinese Technology Theft
- Congress Moves Forward With Legislation Interfering in Tibet
- Zelensky Angers Russia, Blaming Both Soviet Union and Nazi Germany for World War II
- Southwest Asia Diplomacy Following Announcement of Trump Plan
| EDITORIAL Surfacing of Bolton Is a Sign of Coup Plotters’ Desperation Jan. 29 (EIRNS)—With their case for impeachment falling apart, the British-American coup plotters deploying against President Donald Trump and the American electorate, predictably turned to the New York Times to preview John Bolton’s “memoirs,” to try to pump some life into their efforts for a regime change in the U.S. In her weekly webcast, Helga Zepp-LaRouche said this is a sign of desperation, as their case has been effectively refuted by Trump’s legal team, and a significant segment of the population is enraged at the unconstitutional assault on the institution of the Presidency, and the increasing difficulty they are having to cover the cost of basic necessities. The level of political ferment in the U.S., and the overt hostility to the long-dominant Washington Establishment, were on display at a campaign rally which President Trump held on Jan. 28 in Wildwood, N.J., where tens of thousands braved the rain and cold to hear him speak. “I think it is very clear that this [impeachment] is not functioning with the American people,” Zepp-LaRouche said. There is similar ferment breaking out across Europe and other parts of the planet, and the danger exists that it will lead to social chaos if solutions are not provided to the urgent security, economic and cultural issues facing mankind. The biggest danger faced by the imperial forces behind the coup has been Trump’s commitment to establish better relations with Russia and China. Not surprisingly, Bolton, one of those virulently opposed to this shift in U.S. strategic policy, is now being embraced by the same Democrats who in the past denounced him as a dishonest war-hawk. This latest eruption on behalf of the war party occurs as the President has put forward his Middle East peace plan, whose specifics may be flawed, but which “at least has the potential to start a negotiation process,” Zepp-LaRouche said—talks which must include the Palestinians, as well as the Russians. To succeed, it must also be part of a broader process of creating a new global security architecture, embodied in Zepp-LaRouche’s proposal for an urgent summit among, minimally, the Presidents of the U.S., Russia and China. And it has to bring real economic development into the region. “Look at the result of what President Trump clearly wants to end, namely, these endless wars,” Zepp-LaRouche explained. “Therefore, if you want to reconstruct this area and have a durable peace, what you need is an economic development for the entire Southwest Asian region, and that can only happen if all the great powers work together. I think the immediate perspective is given, because the Chinese have offered to Afghanistan, to Iraq, to Syria, to extend the New Silk Road. Also the Arabs have many interests of cooperation along the Silk Road with China. That is the only way how you can have the hope to calm down this region. And rather than trying to continue geopolitical games, I think all the great powers—Russia, China, India, the United States, European countries—they should all join hands and reconstruct this area, and then you can have the hope for peace.” SCIENCE AND INFRASTRUCTURE Xi Affirms ‘China Has Full Confidence and Capability To Win the Battle’ against Coronavirus’ Jan. 29 (EIRNS)—Chinese President Xi Jinping met in Beijing with the visiting World Health Organization (WHO) Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, and continued to take high-profile, personal leadership in his country’s battle against the novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV). “China has full confidence and capability to win the battle,” Xi stated, “The Chinese people are now fighting a very serious battle against the epidemic,” Xi said, and “the prevention and control of the outbreak is the country’s most important work for now.” He stressed that “China is ready to work with the WHO as well as the international community to safeguard regional and global public health security.” Dr. Tedros was effusive in his praise of what China has done to date. Xinhua reported that “Tedros said it is admirable that the Chinese government has shown its solid political resolve and taken timely and effective measures in dealing with the epidemic. President Xi’s personal guidance and deployment show his great leadership capability, Tedros said. He said that China has released information in an open and transparent manner, identified the pathogen in a record-short time and shared the genetic sequence of the novel coronavirus in a timely manner with the WHO and other countries.” Tedros went further, observing that “China’s measures are not only protecting its people, but also protecting the people in the whole world,” according to Xinhua. “The high speed and massive scale of China’s moves are rarely seen in the world, Tedros said, which showed China’s efficiency and the advantages of China’s system. The experience of China is worth learning for other countries.” Tedros concluded, “The WHO firmly supports China’s measures against the epidemic and stands ready to enhance cooperation with China and provide all necessary assistance.” Roscosmos Sets Russian Nuclear Space Tug for Launch in 203 Jan. 29 (EIRNS)—Roscosmos has announced that it will be launching a nuclear power “space tug” by 2030. The announcement was made in a presentation by Roscosmos First Deputy Director General Yuri Urlichich at the 44th Korolev Academic Space Conference, reported TASS. “The Launch of a Nuclear-Powered Spacecraft, and Flight Tests (2030),” the presentation reads. After 2030, the nuclear-propelled space vehicle must enter serial production and commercial use, it says. This involves building a testing and experimenting facility and the perfecting of a nuclear engine on the ground, including conducting resource tests. A mock-up engine is scheduled for this year. Initially, Rosatom had planned to build a test, megawatt nuclear propulsion engine for distant space travel by 2018, which was to be installed on a spacecraft, codenamed “transport energy module.” The work commenced in 2009. U.S. POLITICAL AND ECONOMIC Working People Pour Out for Trump at South Jersey Rally Jan. 29 (EIRNS)—President Donald Trump held a campaign rally at the Wildwood Convention Center on the South Jersey Shore, a New Jersey beach town (year-round population of under 5,500 people) which caters to not-wealthy families. Trump told the rally that some people had advised him to hold this rally in the far bigger Meadowlands Arena in North Jersey, but he had said no, “I want to be with our friends in South Jersey.” LaRouche activists attended the rally in force. The turn-out was huge, primarily by the working people Hillary Clinton had dismissed in 2016 as “deplorables.” Somewhere between 160-175,000 people requested tickets to attend the rally; the hall overflowed its normal capacity of 7,500. People started arriving 48 hours in advance; hundreds and hundreds camped out overnight in the January cold. Tens of thousands of those who couldn’t get in watched the rally on a big screen outside, and the town’s bars were full of others watching it on live television. Trump chose South Jersey, because its U.S. Congressman, Jeff Van Drew, was one of three “brave and principled Democrat lawmakers,” as Trump put it, who had refused to vote for the impeachment hoax; Van Drew was so disgusted with the anti-Constitutional antics of Pelosi et al., that he then switched parties to join Trump’s Republican Party. Trump’s campaign manager reported that 26.3% of the people requesting tickets were self-described Democrats, and over 10% of them did not vote in the 2016 election. He called the numbers overall, “mind boggling.” Noting these figures, the Washington Examiner wrote that “almost half of the attendees at Trump’s recent rally in Ohio identified themselves as Democrats or independents, and almost 60% identified the same way at a rally in Wisconsin.” Democrats Desperate To Go to John Jan. 29 (EIRNS)—Having lost ground by making their case against President Donald Trump before the Senate, and having lost more ground by the relatively short and straightforward defense presented by Trump’s lawyers yesterday, the House Democrats are now hanging their hopes of getting extra mileage for their impeachment circus by waiting for former National Security Adviser John Bolton to, hopefully, testify next week. The Senate is expected to vote on Jan. 31 on whether to accept witnesses, including Bolton. President Trump was not waiting around for that. Earlier today he tweeted about Bolton: “For a guy who couldn’t get approved for the Ambassador to the U.N. years ago, couldn’t get approved for anything since, ‘begged’ me for a non Senate approved job, which I gave him despite many saying ‘Don’t do it, sir,’ takes the job, mistakenly says ‘Libyan Model’ on T.V., and many more mistakes of judgement, gets fired because frankly, if I listened to him, we would be in World War Six by now, and goes out and IMMEDIATELY writes a nasty & untrue book. All Classified National Security. Who would do this?” A Jan. 23 letter to Bolton’s lawyer from National Security Council Senior Director for Records, Access, and Information Security Management Ellen J. Knight, which was made public by Associated Press today, informs him that the manuscript of Bolton’s kiss-and-tell book that they are reviewing for clearance “appears to contain significant amounts of classified information. It also appears that some of this classified information is at the TOP SECRET level, which [can] … ‘reasonably be expected to cause exceptionally grave harm to the national security’ of the United States if disclosed without authorization.” Trump’s attorneys concluded their opening arguments on Jan. 28 with a brief, two-hour presentation, hammering at the impeachment as an attempted re-run of the 2016 election. White House Counsel Pat Cipollone said: “What they are asking you to do is to throw out a successful President on the eve of an election, with no basis, and in violation of the Constitution. Why not trust the American people with this decision? Why tear up their ballots?… Overturning the last election and massively interfering with the upcoming one would cause serious and lasting damage to the people of the United States and our great country…. The Senate cannot allow this to happen. It is time for this to end, here and now.” The Hill reported that “Trump’s attorneys used roughly 11 of the 24 hours allotted to them over three days to present their case,” as compared to the endless droning from the Democrats, who used up nearly every minute allocated to them. Sen. Lindsey Graham responded to the Democrats’ insistence on calling more witnesses, such as Bolton. “I’ll make a prediction. There will be 51 Republican votes to call Hunter Biden, Joe Biden, the whistleblower and the DNC staffer at a minimum.” Pompeo Thanks Yang Jiechi for Evacuation of Americans from Virus Epicenter Jan. 29 (EIRNS)—Secretary of State Mike Pompeo spoke by phone with top diplomat and State Councillor Yang Jiechi today. He offered his condolences for the Chinese citizens who had lost their lives to the novel coronavirus and thanked Yang for his assistance in evacuating Americans from Wuhan, the epicenter of the virus’s spread. More than 200 Americans were evacuated from Wuhan, going through the obligatory medical checks before leaving the city and then again when they arrived in Alaska, where they landed for refueling before reaching their March air base in California, where were again medically checked. Beijing had facilitated the evacuation, which had prompted Secretary Pompeo’s call. Justice Department Kicks Off Huge Campaign against Alleged Chinese Technology Theft Jan. 29 (EIRNS)—Harvard University chemistry chair Prof. Charles Lieber was arrested on Jan. 28 and charged by the Department of Justice with allegedly lying about his connections with Chinese scientists. Although EIR is not familiar with the legal specifics of this and similar cases, it is politically just the tip of a blitz campaign against U.S. researchers involved in projects with China. The DOJ is targeting, in particular, China’s “Thousand Talents” program, which was launched in 2008 to encourage Chinese and other researchers working abroad to come to China to use their talents to help develop the Chinese economy. The argument is being made by FBI Director Christopher Wray and others that China is intent on replacing the United States as the number-one world power and, by means of such a program, is thereby stealing “U.S. intellectual property.” Ergo, this becomes a national security issue. In most cases, Chinese researchers, often motivated by a strong patriotic sense that they can contribute to China’s revitalization, bring with them only their knowledge and their minds. This DOJ campaign, in effect, is a direct attack on the very notion of international scientific cooperation, which has served humanity so well through the ages, and has already sent a chilling message to those scientists hoping to work with China or in China. According to the DOJ, Professor Lieber allegedly accepted more than $1 million in grant money from Wuhan University to establish a lab and conduct research. Lieber is a prestigious chemist, who heads a lab with specialty in nanoscience, and holds appointments in both Harvard’s Chemistry Department, which he chairs, and the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences. In 2017, Harvard bestowed its highest faculty honor on Lieber, naming him a University Professor—a title he shared with only 25 other faculty members, reported the Harvard Gazette. But the acclaimed academic is now barred from the university’s campus. Harvard announced that “Professor Lieber has been placed on indefinite administrative leave.” Lieber, who received more than $15 million in grants from the U.S. National Institutes of Health and the U.S. Department of Defense, reportedly failed to disclose that in 2011 he had joined Wuhan University of Technology in China as a scientist. “According to the court papers, he also participated in the Thousand Talents Plan, a program that aims to attract foreign research specialists. The U.S. has flagged the program as a security concern in the past,” BBC reported. In related cases, two other researchers were arrested in the Boston area. Prosecutors said that Yanqing Ye, a Boston University robotics researcher, concealed the fact that she was in the Chinese army. Ms. Ye is accused of falsely identifying herself as a student and also continuing to work for the People’s Liberation Army, while completing a number of assignments in the U.S. Also, cancer researcher Zaosong Zheng was arrested at Boston’s Logan International Airport with 21 vials of biological samples inhis luggage. Prosecutors allege he was planning to return to China to continue his research there. This is only the beginning, however. On Feb. 6 the Center for Strategic and International Studies, will hold a “China Initiative Conference,” with FBI Director Christopher Wray and keynoted by Attorney General William Barr, “to fulfill the Department’s strategic priority of confronting national security threats presented by the People’s Republic of China, with a particular emphasis placed on the policies and practices that seek to challenge U.S. technological and scientific leadership.” Congress Moves Forward with Legislation Interfering in Tibet Jan. 28 (EIRNS)—The House of Representatives today passed a bill which represents a further attempt to interfere in the internal affairs of the People’s Republic of China. The legislation, entitled the Tibetan Policy and Support Act of 2019, would provide more leeway for a China-obsessed Congress to make more trouble for the P.R.C. It would also place more strictures on the ability of the President to conduct the U.S. foreign relations with regard to China. The bill demands that Tibetans be free to choose a successor to the Dalai Lama without any “interference” by the Chinese government. It also calls for the establishment of a U.S. Consulate in the provincial capital, Lhasa, and the appointment of a Special Coordinator for Tibet at the U.S. State Department. It further demands sanctions under the Magnitsky Act (used most prolifically against Russia) against Chinese officials who are found to “interfere” in the election of the successor to the present Dalai Lama, that all-too-malleable tool of the Western financial oligarchy. There are also absurd sections designating that Tibetan land should not be transferred or sold to non-Tibetans; that water from the Tibetan plateau cannot be regulated, except in consultation with Tibetans; and that any construction must follow strict environmentalist guidelines. It’s almost as if they believe that Tibet must be regulated by the U.S. Congress. The legislation was introduced by Rep. James McGovern in the House and Sen. Marco Rubio in the Senate, the same characters who worked on those other two flagrant provocative interferences into China’s sovereignty, the Hong Kong bill and the Uighur bill. It must still be passed by the Senate, which is highly likely, albeit not inevitable, and be signed by the President. But, like the Hong Kong and Uighur bills, it is all geared to promote Tibetan independence and a break-up of China. The Chinese reaction was swift, with Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying condemning it: “This move has severely breached international law and basic norms governing international relations, grossly interfered in China’s internal affairs, and sent a wrong message to ‘Tibet independence’ forces.” Tibetan affairs are purely internal affairs of China and admit no foreign interference, she insisted, urging the U.S. to fully recognize the high sensitivity of Tibet-related issues and to stop using them to interfere in P.R.C. internal affairs. Instead, she stated, Washington should do more to advance China-U.S. mutual trust and cooperation. STRATEGIC WAR DANGER Zelensky Angers Russia, Blaming Both Soviet Union and Nazi Germany for World War II Jan. 29 (EIRNS)—Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky outraged Moscow during the Jan. 27 memorial observance in Poland on the 75th anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz concentration camp—by the Red Army—when he blamed Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union equally for having started World War II. The Poles “were the first to feel the consequences of the criminal collusion of the totalitarian regimes,” Zelensky said during a joint briefing with Poland’s President Andrzej Duda, reported AFP. “This led to the start of World War II and allowed the Nazis to launch the lethal Holocaust machine.” Zelensky’s remark, echoing earlier statements from political figures in Poland and elsewhere, not surprisingly set off a firestorm of criticism in Moscow. “We strongly disagree with this statement,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters the following day. “The President of Ukraine identifies himself with the extremely erroneous, in our opinion, point of view of the Polish leadership and associates himself with a point of view that is offensive to tens of millions of Russians and citizens of former Soviet countries, whose parents, grandfathers, and relatives gave their lives for the liberation of Europe, including Poland, from fascism. “Therefore, we do not accept this statement, we consider it incorrect and insulting from the point of view of the memory of our grandfathers,” Peskov continued. Angry responses also came from the Russian Duma, the lower house of Russia’s bicameral Federal Assembly. “Today we observe as the Ukrainian President disowns his grandfather and seeks to do everything to smear our mutual history in a bid to retain power and gain acknowledgment of several European countries and the U.S.,” said Duma Chairman Viacheslav Volodin. “Zelensky’s comments about the role of the Soviet Union in the outbreak of World War II suggests that Ukraine remains a territory governed by outside forces. In order to carry water for Kiev’s Western handlers, the Ukrainian leader has sided with an historical falsehood, instead of the truth,” said Leonid Slutsky, the chairman of the Duma Foreign Affairs Committee. “This is shameful and blasphemous towards the memory of those who gave their lives fighting against Nazism.” Russian President Vladimir Putin has in recent weeks personally and repeatedly taken up the cudgels against this revisionist lie of blaming the Soviet Union for World War II. Southwest Asia Diplomacy Following Announcement of Trump Plan Jan. 29 (EIRNS)—A round of diplomatic meetings and talks are now beginning, following the announcement of President Donald Trump’s Israeli-Palestinian peace settlement proposal. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu left Washington to fly directly to Moscow, where he will brief Russian President Vladimir Putin on Jan. 30 on his talks with President Trump and the peace plan, as was confirmed by the spokespersons of both leaders. The U.S. State Department released a statement saying that U.S. Ambassador to Russia John Sullivan will inform the Russian authorities about President Trump’s Middle East plan. Pointing to the overriding importance of getting discussions going between Israelis and Palestinians, Chairman of the Russian Federation Council’s Committee on International Relations Sen. Konstantin Kosachev wrote on his official Facebook page on Jan. 28, “The ‘deal of the century’ announced by Trump, of course, needs detailed analysis, and not only in its substantive part, but also in its resonant part, when it comes to the reactions of the two parties in the old Middle Eastern conflict. And if everyone—what if?—not that they will unconditionally accept Washington’s proposal but will at least start negotiations on its basis, that would be a common success, and I think it is not as important who suggested the plan in the first place.” Speaking on Palestinian national television, Palestine President Mahmoud Abbas told the nation on Jan. 28, that although they reject the peace plan, they will negotiate with Israel under the auspices of the “quartet” of international Middle East mediators comprised of Russia, the United States, the United Nations, and the European Union. “We accept negotiations with Israel under the auspices of the quartet,” Abbas said. “We adhere to negotiations on the basis of international legitimacy, and will not accept Washington as the only mediator in the Middle Eastern peace process,” he stated. He reiterated that a peace plan has to be based on creating a Palestinian state with the borders of 1967. This “quartet” idea would apparently be accepted by Russia, the UN, and the EU. In this respect the comments by Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov yesterday are significant: He emphasized the need to listen to the Palestinians’ position, as well as that of the Arab League, but then also stated that Moscow “would really like for the quartet of international mediators, which are Russia, U.S.A., UN, and the EU, to review the situation.” Statements by European Union High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Josep Borrell, and by the spokesman for UN Secretary-General Stéphane Dujarric, also urged dialogue. “Today’s initiative by the United States provides an occasion to re-launch the urgently needed efforts towards a negotiated and viable solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict,” Borrell said. Dujarric commented: “The United Nations remains committed to supporting Palestinians and Israelis to resolve the conflict on the basis of United Nations resolutions, international law and bilateral agreements and realizing the vision of two states—Israel and Palestine—living side by side in peace and security within recognized borders, on the basis of the pre-1967 lines.” Reach us at eirdailyalert@larouchepub.com or call 1-571-293-0935 |
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